Entrepreneurs have difficulty finding the time to look after company vehicles

Posted on

Mar 26, 2014

More than a fifth (23 per cent) of Britain's entrepreneurs who are in charge of up to 50 vehicles are having difficulty coping with the number of other roles they have to perform, according to new research by RAC and YouGov.
Almost all (98 per cent) of respondents said they were juggling fleet responsibilities alongside many other jobs, including general management (61 per cent), finances (53 per cent), sales and marketing (40 per cent), HR (40 per cent), new business development (34 per cent) and general administration (32 per cent).
Stress amongst SME owners was particularly high for managers looking after 10-50 vehicles; with 49 per cent saying they were stressed and 6 per cent saying they were 'very stressed'.
A quarter of managers said the admin they undertook around the vehicles and drivers had increased in the past year, as a result of more paperwork or having more vehicles.
Gerry Keaney said: 'The Chancellor talked about extending support for low emission vehicles, but there is precious little evidence for that in this Budget.
'The electric vehicle market is still in the doldrums, and the current incentive regime isn't working.
'The new company car tax rates announced today will do nothing to encourage fleets and their drivers to take a risk on this costly and uncertain technology."
Elsewhere, the BVRLA has said that the Chancellor has missed an opportunity to support ultra-low carbon cars in his recent Budget.
'A business driver thinking about choosing an expensive zero-emission vehicle this year will see their company car tax rate rise from nothing to 13 per cent within four years. Their cost of motoring will rise much faster than someone choosing a gas guzzler.
'Any cost benefit this industry might have received from the abolition of the 3 per cent diesel supplement in 2016 has been dragged back and by 2018/19 company car drivers will be contributing an extra £480m in annual tax revenues.î
The BVRLA has only tentatively welcomed the Chancellor's decision to provide an extra £200m for pothole repairs too:
Keaney said: 'Poorly maintained and repaired roads are the cholesterol clogging up the vital transport arteries of the UK economy.
'The Government has realised we have a problem, but providing just an extra £200 million for local authority pothole repairs is not nearly enough.î